[Upper airway obstruction as a complication of acenocoumarol treatment]

The case-histories of three patients treated with acenocumarol attended urgently because of sudden onset dyspnea and dysphonia an presented. Endoscopic and radiologic studies revealed in these patients a laryngeal obstruction by haematomas in a different grade, due to an excess in the effect of anticoagulant therapy, since prothrombine times measured as INR were too high. In one of the cases, the sudden and infrequent evolution associating initialy difficulty of breathing without any inspiratory or phonetic disorder, moved to a late diagnosis with a tragic ending, because it delayed an urgent tracheostomy, which bled profusely. It was a patient with a defective anticoagulant therapy control and numerous previous haemorrhagic incidents. The not so fulminant pattern in the other two cases allowed its early diagnostic and treatment planning, which included the admission to hospital and withdrawal of the anticoagulant drug and the vigilance of symptoms, up to confirm healing. Haemorrhagic laryngeal complications due to acenocoumarol, though unusual, imply an obvious vital trouble that moves to an urgent therapeutic attitude more or less aggressive. Its clinical suspicion obliges to its early discard.